Current Jackpot US$ 9,000,000

FL Lottery – Lotto FL

The
Florida State Lottery operates one of the United States’ most lucrative
single-state lottery systems and offers various different online
lotteries and scratch-card games with a wide range of prize levels.

This state lottery system commenced operations in January 1988 with the primary aim of providing funding for state education.

The very first game offered by the Florida Lottery was Millionaire, a scratch off game costing $1.00 a ticket.

FL Lottery – Florida Lotto– Overview

Here we will take a look at one offering from Florida Lottery in particular – the Florida lotto.

The
Florida Lotto was one of the first games to be offered by the Florida
Lottery group, which has emerged as an industry leader, being launched
in April 1988 shortly after the initial scratch card game.

It
created a new national and world record in August 1988 when a $52
million jackpot was produced – the largest ever globally at the time.

Draws
take place every Wednesday and Saturday at 11.15 pm Eastern Time during
a live television broadcast and tickets for that night’s draw must be
purchased by 10.40 pm.

The
jackpot prize usually begins at $2 million and increases by “rolling
over” when not won. This lottery does not have a cap on its jackpot and
will keep “rolling over” until the jackpot is eventually won.

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FL Lottery – Florida Lotto– How It Works

Florida
Lotto players need to select 6 numbers from a pool of balls numbered 1
to 53. If the 6 numbers selected match the 6 numbers drawn in any order
then the player will win a Florida Lotto jackpot.

Other cash prizes are won if either 3, 4, or 5 numbers are matched.

The
other option a player has when choosing their Florida Lottery numbers
is to use the Quick Pick box and allow the terminal to automatically
generate some or all of their numbers similar to the Lucky Dip option
available in the UK National Lottery and Europe’s EuroMillions.

Florida Lottery "Quick Pick" Random Number Generator - Click On the Button Below to Generate Some NumbersYour numbers will open in the top left in a new small window. To generate morenumbers you MUSTclose "X" this small window first. Javascript must be enabled inyour browser for this widget to work. The button below will not work unless it is.

Before
selecting your numbers however, you are required to decide how much you
wish to play for – with entries costing either $1.00, $2.00 or $3.00.
The reason for this is outlined below…

The draw takes place using a single
ball machine to determine the 6 winning Florida Lottery numbers and the
FL Lottery results are published on the official FloridaLottery website –
flalottery.com.

FL Lottery – Florida Lotto– Larger Jackpots

Two
new jackpot levels were introduced to the game in March 2008 allowing
Florida Lotto players the chance to increase the size of the jackpot
they could win by paying an extra $1.00 or $2.00 on top of the basic
$1.00 for their entry.

So…the first thing to decide when playing is whether you want a $1.00, $2.00 or $3.00 entry into the game.

The
base entry cost of $1.00 will have a jackpot guaranteed to start at a
minimum of $3 million USD which will increase each draw by “rolling
over” if all 6 numbers are not matched.

Paying
the slightly increased wager of $2.00 for an entry will win the player
an additional $10 million USD on top of the advertised jackpot, if they
match all 6 numbers.

With
the wager increased further to $3.00 for the entry, the player who
matches all 6 numbers will win an additional $25 million USD in addition
to the advertised jackpot.

So…for
a small increase of either $1.00 or $2.00 you can add $10 or $25
million to your winnings should you select all 6 numbers that are drawn.

FL Lottery – Florida Lotto– Lotto Plus

These
additional amounts are called $2.00 Lotto Plus and $3.00 Lotto Plus and
are paid as annuities. The Lotto Plus added jackpot figures are fixed
amounts and therefore don’t “roll over” like the base jackpot.

This is quite a different and valuable feature when compared with most lotteries.

…making
the choice of how much you wish to increase the size of your potential
jackpot by entirely your own – Florida Lotto’s flexible option.

FL Lottery – Florida Lotto– Who Can Play?

Historically,
only resident citizens of the Sunshine State of Florida were allowed to
play in any of the Florida Lottery games and tickets had to be
purchased from an authorized retailer within Florida itself.

Now,
however, you are able to choose your Florida Lottery numbers and buy
lottery tickets from accredited and authorized online lottery ticket
sales agencies such as TheLotter no matter where in the world you are living.

This is great news for all those people who live outside of Florida and the U.S.A. and wish to buy lottery tickets online for the Florida Lotto, guarantee their entry into the next draw and even choose the size of the jackpot they are aiming for.

Once you have entered into the game, you are also able to easily check the Florida Lotto Results online to see how you have done and to find out if you have become one of the lucky lottery winners.

The
minimum age for a player to be eligible to purchase a Florida Lottery
ticket is 18 years for any of the games available including the Florida
Lotto.

“Cross-Over” sales information for all USA Lottery players in Florida…

The Muilt-State Lottery Association (MUSL) – who administer the POWERBALL game – and the Mega Millions consortium – who administer the MEGA MILLIONS game – have recently entered into an historic cross-sales agreement across the USA. All US Lotteries that previously sold POWERBALL tickets can now ALSO sell tickets for the MEGA MILLIONS and vice versa.

This came into effect on January 31st 2010 – but as yet the Florida Lottery has not entered into the cross-over sales arrangement. This position may change, of course, in future months but in the meantime – USA Lottery players in Florida and around the world are STILL able to buy lottery tickets online for the MEGA MILLIONS as WELL as the existing POWERBALL.

FL Lottery – Information and Background

With
tickets for the Florida Lotto first going on sale on April 29th 1988,
the very first draw took place on May 7th of that year.

In
February 1993, the prize structure was altered slightly to inject a
bigger percentage of sales into the jackpot pool and to allow for a
minimum of a $6 million USD annuity prize.

When Losers Become Winners…

Even
losers could become winners in May 1994 when Florida Lotto began its
first mail-in promotion. It was called “The Great LottoMobile Giveaway”
where players could send in their losing tickets to win one of 50 brand
new Ford Mustangs.

November
1996 saw the 500th draw take place and this produced a jackpot of $26
million USD after “rolling over” twice and was won by a ticket holder in
Lake Worth who held the correct Florida Lottery winning numbers.

On
reaching its 10 year anniversary in 1998, the Florida Lottery had
turned over $21 billion USD and provided $8 billion towards education in
the state, very much accomplishing so far, what it had set out to
achieve.

Would You Prefer A Lump Sum?

November 1998 saw a couple of significant changes to the way Florida Lotto operated.

Firstly,
the cash option was introduced whereby players could choose a cash lump
sum instead of the historical annuity payments for a jackpot win.

Secondly, the time period in which jackpot winners would receive the equal annual payments was increased from 20 to 30 years.

A Brand New Draw…

The
biggest changes to way the Florida Lotto was run occurred in October
1999 which made the lotto even more appealing to an ever expanding
market.

Firstly,
4 numbers were added to the matrix which changed from a 6/49 to a 6/53
configuration meaning that instead of picking 6 numbers from balls
numbered 1 to 49, players would now pick 6 from a wider range of balls
numbered 1 to 53.

Secondly,
a completely new draw was added on Wednesday evenings meaning that
there were now 2 draws per week giving even more people a chance of
winning the lottery.

In
September 2003 the 180 day claim deadline expired for what would be the
game’s largest unclaimed ticket which was worth roughly an advertised
$53.7 million USD.

In
fact it is worth noting that 80% of all unclaimed Florida Lottery
jackpot money is given to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund with
20% being allocated to funding future lottery prizes.

Lotto Plus…

The
next big and quite unique change to the game occurred in March 2008
when 2 completely new jackpot levels were introduced (Lotto Plus) giving
players the options to buy lottery tickets online or offline for an
increased wager of either $2.00 or $3.00 giving them a vastly increased
jackpot should they win.

So,
over the years, the FLALottery has become part of the very nature of
life in Florida, very much affecting the lives of those who live there.
On the one hand, giving the people of the Sunshine State a reason to
believe their dreams can come true whilst at the same time, providing
much needed funding for the Florida educational system.

Now
that the Florida Lottery has passed its 20th anniversary it is clear
that it has truly achieved what it set out to do with more than $4
billion worth of lottery tickets being purchased each year and millions
continuing to show their support for one of the genuine industry
leaders.

FL Lottery – Florida Lotto– Odds of Winning

The
odds of winning the Florida Lotto Jackpot are 1 in 22,957,480 which,
when compared to the likes of Powerball and Mega Millions are much more
favorable.

The overall odds of winning any prize in the Florida Lotto are 1 in 67.

The odds of winning one of the second level prizes reduce dramatically to
1 in 81,409.

The odds of winning a third level prize look like this…1 in 1,415

With the fourth prize level odds being just 1 in 70.

FL Lottery – Florida Lotto– Record Jackpots

The
Florida Lottery produced the world’s biggest single jackpot payout to
date in September 1988, only its first year of operations, when Sheelah
Ryan of Winter Springs, won US$ 55.16 Million.

The
first Florida Lotto jackpot to reach the US$ 100 Million mark occurred on September 14th 1990. The jackpot was, in fact, US$106.5 Million and was
split 6 ways with each FLALottery winner getting US$ 17.75 Million. It remains the biggest Florida Lotto jackpot to date and another
record was set here also with the organization generating US$ 30 Million in
revenue from this one game.

Florida Lottery – How Prizes are Paid

Florida
State lottery jackpot winners have a choice in how they are able to
receive their winnings. They can choose to have either a single cash
lump sum payment or an annuity prize.

If
the Jackpot lottery winner chooses to receive an annuity as opposed to a
lump sum, the winnings would be paid to them in 30 equal annual
payments over a 30 year period.

In
terms of value, the lump sum payment that a Jackpot lottery winner
would receive would generally be roughly half that of the annuity value
that they would get paid in equal annual payments.

The rules with any of the FLA Lottery games mean that you need to claim your prize within 180 days of the draw taking place.

If
choosing to receive the cash lump sum option instead of the annuity
payments for a jackpot win, you need to exercise this option within 60
days of the draw taking place otherwise the method of payment will
automatically default to the equal annual payments annuity option.

Tax
wise, Florida has no state income tax but as with lotteries across the
whole of the U.S.A., prizes are taxable by the federal government.

Of course, if you play lottery online, you will not have to be concerned with any of the above information, as your lottery ticket sales company, such as TheLotter or whichever company you use, will take care of all this for you.

The very minimum Jackpot prize would be $3 million and when not won this would increase with each “rollover”.

With
the Lotto Plus $2 per play option the minimum jackpot prize would be
$13 million with just the $3 million base jackpot figure “rolling over”
if not won.

With
the Lotto Plus $3 per play option the minimum jackpot prize would be
$28 million with just the $3 million base jackpot figure “rolling over”
if not won.